Rob Bell is so Cool!

Never mind he is saying stuff that others have been preaching, teaching, spouting off about for quite a while now, nobody else has gotten people any where near as fired up! This is really awesome! And for the record I agree with most everything I have heard him say so far.

For the first time in my 16 years of following Christ has somebody finally laid down the challenge to these demigod evangelical right wingers. An argument that has them frantically throwing ashes into the air and reaching for sack cloth that has not been seen since “The Last Temptation of Christ” (which coincidentally occurred during a period when I was not a Christ follower and evangelicals bugged the day lights out of me too). The difference I am hoping for this time is that instead of just screaming HERATIC! they actually do some study to understand why they believe something different. While I had no desire nor time to engage any of these people in argument today I did read a couple of comments from folks that showed just how little they seem to actually know about what they are standing for (or against!) Case in point almost none of these modern day Scribes seem to know the understanding of the Devil and hell they hold comes from Dante NOT the Bible.

Christ and God did not call us to be mindless drones that do not even understand how or why God loves us. Instead we were given minds so vast we barely even understand how it works! God wants us to use this chunk of meat on top of our shoulders. God wants us to question EVERYTHING! I for one love it when people question points I made in a sermon. I love it when they have to stop and make sure they know why they don’t agree. Heck I don’t even mind if I am convinced that I was wrong and they are right. The conversation is the point. Living into a relationship with the people around us, understanding our diffrences and loving each other any way.

Is Rob Bell a universalist? Nah I don’t think so. Is he wrong on any of the other points he is making? Probably. Will I still lay down my $20 for his latest book? Hell Yes! And I will gladly engage people in conversation over the points he makes. My only requirement is that 1) you have read the book 2) you understand why you believe what you believe 3) that we both agree we could be wrong!